Recent trends in networking include a new approach to routing architecture in which data and control planes have been decoupled. This new split-architecture framework that focuses on splitting of control plane from forwarding arid data plane is the basis of software defined networking (SDN). In a software defined network (SDN), the control plane is implemented in an SDN controller and the data plane is implemented in the networking infrastructure (e.g., switches and routers). Data forwarding on a network device is controlled through flow table entries populated by the SDN controller that manages the control plane for that network. A network device that receives packets on its interfaces looks up its flow table to check the actions that need to be taken on a received packet.